Parseltongue Prejudice
by Yunaine
Summary: After talking to Malfoy’s summoned snake, Harry finds out that the Wizarding World might be even worse then the Dursleys had ever been. - Set during second year; Harry/Hannah


Author: Yunaine

Title: Parseltongue Prejudice

Words: 9,379

Rating: T

Status: One-Shot - Completed

Spoilers: PS / CoS

Category: Angst/Romance/Humor

Warnings: Some verbal insulting, mentions of death, implied sex later on (no explicit scenes)

Main characters: Harry Potter, Hannah Abbott

Pairing: Harry Potter & Hannah Abbott

Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter and I do not own anything in reference to that entire imagined universe.

Summary: After talking to Malfoy's summoned snake, Harry finds out that the Wizarding World might be even worse then the Dursleys had ever been.

--

**1- Parseltongue Prejudice**

"Serpensortia!" shouted Draco Malfoy, a victorious sneer on his face when he saw Harry's eyes widen in shock.

Harry was thinking on how to quickly eliminate the snake without antagonizing it.

"Potter, don't move," grimaced Snape, "that snake is one of the most poisonous and aggressive species on this planet."

Lockhart decided to show his remarkable intelligence and shot a spell straight at the snake. The snake flew in the air and landed in the middle of a couple of Hufflepuff students. It's head snapped forward in an attempt to bite the leg of a student.

"Stop!" shouted Harry. The snake abruptly stopped its movement and after a few seconds slithered straight to Harry.

"You speak the tongue?" asked the snake, "My ancestors passed the tale on that privileged humans could speak it, but never had I believed it."

"The tongue? What do you mean?" requested Harry while his brow furrowed in confusion.

At the same moment, the first person to come out of his shock was Malfoy who shot another spell at Harry, "Stupefy!"

Harry snapped out of his daze and dodged the incoming spell.

"How dare you attack a speaker of the tongue?" hissed the snake viciously. It slithered straight to Malfoy and before anyone could react had bitten him straight in his leg.

Snape finally reacted and stunned Malfoy while killing the snake. He immediately floated Malfoy behind him while running out of the room in the direction of the hospital wing, hoping to be in time to have stopped the poison with his stunning spell.

"POTTER, HEADMASTER'S OFFICE, _NOW_!" shouted Snape while he disappeared from view.

Harry still had no idea what was going on, it was obvious that Malfoy had antagonized the snake. He looked around and saw everyone backing away from his gaze with horrified expressions on their faces.

With a short look at Ron and Hermione, who also looked horrified, Harry left alone for the headmaster's office. When he stepped outside of the Great Hall, he heard a lot of whispering breaking the silence that was left by Snape's departure.

He finally arrived at Dumbledore's office when he realized that he didn't have a clue on how to open the gargoyle. "_Typically Snape,_" thought Harry, "_never giving any decent information to actually finish an instruction set by him_._"_

Five minutes later the gargoyle moved upwards and allowed Harry entrance. When he entered the office he noticed a bird sitting on a perch. Harry got nearer to it and finally touched the bird which leaned into his touch, when it eventually exploded in a burst of flame.

Dumbledore had entered the office a couple of seconds earlier, "Ah, I see Fawkes has finally given in to his burning day."

"Fawkes? Burning day, sir?" questioned Harry.

"Yes Harry, you see, Fawkes is a Phoenix. And it is most unusual for a Phoenix to immediately take a liking to someone, let alone having you touch him while having a burning. Most unusual indeed..." mused Dumbledore.

"Ah, but you aren't here to see Fawkes of course. Why are you here Harry?" asked Dumbledore.

"Professor Snape ordered me to come here Professor Dumbledore," replied Harry.

"And why did Professor Snape order you here Harry?"

"I don't really understand, sir. In the Dueling Club Malfoy somehow created a snake. Professor Snape told me not to move because the snake was highly poisonous. Then Professor Lockhart shoots a spell at the snake, making it land in the middle of the students."

"Was anyone hurt Harry?" asked Dumbledore urgently.

"Not at that time, sir. I yelled at it to stop and it suddenly stopped while coming straight for me. It was talking about a speaker when Malfoy suddenly attacked me again. The snake then shot straight to Malfoy and bit him in the leg. Professor Snape then stunned Malfoy and got rid of the snake. He raced out of the room and yelled at me to come here while I didn't even do anything wrong," ended Harry.

While Dumbledore was concerned for the Malfoy kid, he was also intrigued by Harry being a speaker. He didn't need to make a decision between the both of them since Snape strode into the room.

"Headmaster, this brat set a snake on one of my student!" began Snape.

"I did not!" said Harry, "I told it not to attack when Malfoy suddenly attacks me and the snake retaliated."

Snape merely glared at Harry while continuing, "Nevertheless, one of my students is currently in the hospital wing. Madam Pomfrey already looked over Mr. Malfoy. While the poison itself would have been deadly if I was a few seconds later, she was able to stop the poison from spreading and removed it a few moments ago. Mr. Malfoy will be spending the next month in the hospital wing to recover from his leg injury."

"Hmmm...," mused Dumbledore. His mind was already racing over several options to this situation. After a few moments of silence, he finally spoke again, "Go back to your dormitory Harry. I will need to consult with the Heads of Houses before I can make a decision in this."

Snape's eyebrow lifted a bit at this, he had suspected that Dumbledore would have protected the boy immediately.

Harry merely sighed and left the room, still having no clue what was going on or why Dumbledore wanted to talk to the Heads of Houses.

--

After Harry left the office, Dumbledore immediately shot to his cabinet and got out a Phoenix pendant. He activated it and set the location to his office.

"Headmaster, isn't the next meeting of the Order beginning next month?" requested Snape.

"Yes," answered Dumbledore, "_Normally_ it would be next month. But to make a decision on this I will require the opinion of the Order members."

Half an hour later most of the Order members had arrived in Dumbledore's office. Most of them wondering what had happened to set of an early meeting. While some people suspected that the Order has stopped functioning on Voldemort's demise, there were still meetings held bimonthly to go over suspicious incidents.

Dumbledore finally rose from his chair and everyone stopped whispering at once. "We have another decision to make in regards to Mr. Potter," started Dumbledore. "To make a long explanation short, Harry was proven to be a Parselmouth in front of most of the school."

Most people's eyebrows seemed to vanish under their hair. "Another Parselmouth Albus?" inquired Moody.

"Yes Alastor, another speaker. We were in the unique position to have had one in the Order in the first war against Voldemort, and even one of my ancestors had the privilege of talking to snakes. However, due to Voldemort's regime in the first war, most people currently fear anything to do with snakes."

"What we need to decide now," continued Dumbledore, "Is whether we make the knowledge of good and neutral Parselmouth public or not."

"What do you mean, Albus?" requested Professor McGonagall.

"What I mean is, that we could take all the pressure away from Harry and make it clear that there is no danger in being able to talk to snakes. We could also decide not to act at all and wait to see what happens. And last, we could make it seem as if Harry is dangerous by publicly talking about the duel and assigning Harry detention. This would turn most of the public against him and destroy his image of savior," ended Dumbledore.

"Wasn't putting him through the Dursleys enough already Headmaster?" someone asked.

"The Dursleys were harsh on him and while they did make it hard on Harry mentally, they never did anything to physically harm him," ended Dumbledore again. His voice almost sounded disappointed.

"He's been through enough already," started the same person again, "shouldn't we -

"Oh would you stop whining like a Potter already," interrupted Snape, "The brat has to kill the Dark Lord when he gets back, if the stupid boy can't even handle a bit of bad reputation then what chance does he have against _him_."

The argument went on for another hour, everyone pointing out what might happen in every situation. They finally decided what would be done. Even though both duelers would be given detention, Malfoy would be let off for having been injured. Dumbledore would also let Harry's ability leak to the Daily Prophet. The library books that contained information about parselmouths being good or neutral would be removed. They would see what happened from then on.

They reasoned that if everyone would make Harry look bad, he would try even harder to prove himself to be a good person.

_They had no idea how wrong they were._

--

Harry walked slowly through the hallways. While he was thinking about everything that happened, he never noticed someone coming up being him.

"You still have no idea what happened, do you?" questioned a female voice from behind him.

When he turned around, he saw a short girl standing in front of him. She had blonde hair in pigtails and the emblem of Hufflepuff adorned her robes. Her eyes were light blue and had a mischievous look in them.

"No, I don't," Harry finally replied, "Would you perhaps care to inform me?"

A small smile tugged at her mouth and she replied, "Already asking difficult questions when you don't even know who I am. Who says that I'll even answer them truthfully? Shouldn't you be asking your friends?"

Harry sighed out of pure frustration, "Great, another person to harass me today by talking a lot yet never giving any information. And people actually call this place a school," mumbled Harry.

The girl giggled and stretched out her hand, "Hannah Abbott, proud Hufflepuff, born in existence only to annoy you, and I'm cute to boot."

Harry's eyes danced with amusement and shook her hand, "Not lacking in the confidence department, are you? I would offer you my name but chances are rather low that you wouldn't know."

She merely grinned in reply and started walking in the direction Harry was going to before. Harry walked beside her through the damp corridors.

"Shouldn't you be with your friends?" asked Harry.

"No, they are currently debating on how to stay away from you. I always thought Hufflepuff stood for loyalty, apparently that was wrong."

"Why would they want to stay away from me?"

Hannah sighed, "Harry, when you were talking to that snake, you were talking in another language called Parseltongue."

"Bu-

"I know, I know," interrupted Hannah, "You didn't even realize that you were talking in another language. My mother was a Parselmouth as well, but she never told anyone about it. Even though every witch or wizard could get that gift, only very few tell anyone about it. Even the snakes themselves are usually asked not to tell anyone."

"Having the talent itself isn't bad, " continued Hannah, "But Voldemort used the ability to let snakes attack houses or utilized them as common assassins. Most of the people in Britain fear Parselmouths because of that. They'll see it as the ability of a dark wizard because they've been fearing it for almost half a decade."

"So... to say it bluntly, I'm pretty screwed because everybody just found out," replied Harry.

"No, Dumbledore should know all of this as well, he'll probably stand up for you."

They kept walking besides each other for a while, when Harry finally remembered and blurted out, "You said that your mother _was_ a Parselmouth. Did she somehow manage to get rid of the ability?"

Hannah's shoulders slumped a bit and she mumbled, "You could say that, both my father and mother were killed by Death Eaters a week before the war ended."

Harry stopped walking out of shock, "_I have got to be the most insensitive and moronic dolt to have ever existed," _he thought.

"I ... I'm sorry Hannah, I didn't even consider... I'm so sorry," Harry said.

"It's been a long while now Harry, I don't even remember them at all. I only learned about her ability because she had left her diary in my trust vault which I found when I started first year," replied Hannah, "I grew up in an orphanage somewhere near my parents house."

They both moved on again and while they kept silent, it wasn't uncomfortable.

They finally arrived in front of the Gryffindor common room, "This is my stop," said Harry.

"Pity," sighed Hannah dramatically, "Just when I was going to make a move on you."

Harry merely looked confused while Hannah's grin just got bigger and let out a slight giggle, "Don't ever change Harry, I'm off to my dormitory before I miss curfew and someone thinks that you assassinated me. See ya Harry!"

"See you," Harry mumbled at the retreating back of Hannah. "_Are all girls that ... weird?_" he wondered, "_Even that snake made more sense._"

Harry said the password to the portrait of the Fat Lady, who merely looked at him with a bit of pity, and stepped inside the Gryffindor common room. All sound stopped in a few seconds when everyone realized who had stepped inside.

Not really in the mood to handle with them yet, he walked right through the room and straight up the stairs to his dormitory.

After careful consideration, Harry would realize he should have stayed in the common room to avoid the incoming argument that would come.

"YOU'RE A PARSELMOUTH!" yelled Ron when Harry walked into the dormitory of the second years.

"Yeah Ron," sighed Harry, "Apparently I'm a Parselmouth."

"You-Know-Who was a Parselmouth! My uncles were killed by snakes when they were sleeping in their homes! DAMN YOU!" shouted Ron.

More than a year of friendship suddenly got replaced by complete hatred merely by the knowledge of one ability.

"Don't you ever go near me or my family again," seethed Ron, "And I won't hesitate to hex you if you come too close to my bed."

Harry, who was still confused from everything that had happened before, merely blinked in reply and sighed again, "_Why did I even bother waking up today? Aren't best friends supposed to stick up for each other? I guess friendship is very overrated and by the looks of everything downstairs I won't be getting a lot of new friends either. Hopefully Hermione will still use her intelligence,_" thought Harry while changing his clothes and getting into his bed.

--

Harry woke up groggily the next morning. Memories of the day before ran through his head and reluctantly he got out of his bed. "_Breakfast should be interesting today,_" mused Harry.

He was the first one up in his dormitory, so he quickly showered and made his way down the staircase into the common room. Hermione was sitting in an armchair looking lost in thought.

"Hermione?" asked Harry.

After waiting a few moments, he waved his hand in front of her eyes and she suddenly looked up.

"Good morning Harry," she said morosely.

Harry sighed at her tone and wondered yet again why he didn't stay in bed. "Are you going to cut our friendship as well Hermione?"

"I ... I don't know Harry. I don't know that much about specific magical abilities. I'ld rather look into this before making any decisions," she said weakly.

"Sure Hermione, let me know whatever the result becomes. I'ld love to know why everyone is suddenly looking at me as if I'm Voldemort," Harry replied.

Hermione seemed to turn a little green and she ran out of the common room.

"_Sjeez, can't even tell a joke anymore..._" thought Harry.

He made his way down to the Great Hall and started eating breakfast. He wondered if things could get any uglier than what was already going on. He was the Boy-Who-Lived and everything always happened to him. So perhaps thinking about the possibility of things going even more wrong, was not the correct thing to do for Harry.

The morning post arrived and dropped a Daily Prophet in front of several students. All of the purebloods were subscribed to that paper, something to do with 'keeping themselves informed'. Most of the half-bloods and some muggle-borns were also subscribed.

After hearing several gasps and people looking at him, Harry snapped at a nearby student "What is it now?"

She threw her Daily Prophet at him and backed away as far as she could from Harry. The whispering from the day before seemed to have gotten even worse now.

He opened the thrown paper and looked at the headline.

_BOY-WHO-LIVED NEXT DARK LORD?_

After reading the headline, he blinked his eyes and closed the paper again. No use reading it anyway. Harry closed his eyes for a moment and got lost in his thoughts, "_Fantastic, just when you think things can't get any worse. Now all I need is being expelled and I get get back to those 'loving' Dursleys._"

After rubbing his eyes a bit, he opened them again and looked at the Hufflepuff table. Hannah was sitting there looking a bit glum. Obviously she had also seen the paper and wasn't very enthusiastic about it. They had basically just called her mother a Dark Lady.

All of the whispering suddenly stopped and Harry vaguely wondered if he had lost his hearing for a moment.

"As you all know," started Dumbledore who had stood up only moments before, "there was a rather unique incident yesterday. During a duel one of the students involved was gravely injured. However, Mr. Malfoy was the one responsible for creating the situation in the first place."

"Mr. Malfoy won't be able to join classes for the next month. His punishment for this entire situation will be exactly that, I see no use in assigning detention to add to such a painful punishment already," stated Dumbledore.

"Mr. Potter will be serving detention for the next week for his actions. I would kindly ask you not to harass him in any way about this situation, he can hardly change anything about what happened," ended Dumbledore and he sat down again.

In the meanwhile both Hannah and Harry were thinking the exact same thing, "_..._".

Exactly, both of their minds had gone completely blank for an instant.

While they had both imagined that Dumbledore might be standing up for him, they never imagined putting him down like that.

The entire speech was correct, but it could be perceived completely wrong, which was exactly what every student would do. Malfoy got off for summoning a deadly snake which could have killed anyone. Harry got a detention for his actions, which was only stopping the snake and talking to it. Everyone would of course think that it was for ordering the deadly snake to bite Malfoy.

"_Great,_" thought Harry, "_Not exactly being expelled, but close enough._" With that, he let his head fall onto the table. That action alone managed to get half the hall, which were watching him, to jump in their seats. Even though the situation was pretty severe, Hannah couldn't stop a small snort escaping. Luckily the rest of the regular mail just flew in and nobody heard her.

--

The detentions were over. Every single one of them looked over by Mr. Filch. And even though he never got along with students, he conveniently mumbled whichever place Harry needed to clean in the proximity of students. By the time they arrived, it was a complete mess for sure.

During that week, Harry had to suffer through all of the pointing and whispering as if he were indeed the next Dark Lord. Harry vaguely wondered why Voldemort would even want a life like that; it's not like it's fun to be made an object of fear.

After the last detention, Harry entered the common room to hear a whispered discussion between Ron and Hermione.

"You can't trust him Hermione, he's a damn Parselmouth! Don't you get it? He could set a snake on you anytime he wanted!" whispered Ron harshly.

"But Ron, he saved my life in first year. I can't just forget about all of that."

"Did he save you because he cared, or only for his own reputation?"

"What?" asked Hermione who was shocked.

"Oh come off it Hermione, we don't know anything about his home life. Sweat Merlin, when we went to get him, his relatives even had bars on his windows like a caged animal. His own relatives Hermione! You don't think they'ld just do that for fun, do you?" whispered Ron harshly.

"We don't know anything of what happened in that last room with You-Know-Who, he could have just as easily joined him for all we know. It was Dumbledore that destroyed the stone, not Harry. Who says Harry didn't want it for himself? We know nothing of him Hermione. Saving you could have just been an act to throw off all suspicion when something would happen."

Hermione silently sobbed and Ron hugged her close. "I ... I checked the library as well Ron. There's almost nothing in there about Parselmouths and the things I found... aren't good."

Harry stopped listening and realized that he had lost both of his best friends. He finally closed the portrait with enough sound to make Ron and Hermione realize someone just entered the room. Harry merely strode straight to his dormitory.

When he laid his head on his pillow, a lone tear trickled down his face.

--

When Harry went down to breakfast the next morning, the least he expected was being pulled aside by an enraged witch.

"Why in Merlin's name did you tell everyone?" hissed Hannah, who looked ready to hex him in a most painful way.

"What are you talking about Hannah?" asked Harry, trying to ignore the wand jabbing in his neck.

"About my mother damn-it! I got into Hufflepuff tower last night and everyone looked at me as if I had grown another head! Susan pulled me aside and asked me why I never told her my mother was a Parselmouth. I only told ONE PERSON Harry Potter, and that was YOU," seethed Hannah while poking her wand in his neck on the most important words.

"I swear Hannah, I didn't tell anyone. Merlin, I haven't even told anyone that I talked to you, let alone about your mother. Why would I even do that?" whispered Harry.

"Oh, I don't know, perhaps so you aren't alone in your little world anymore?" Hannah lashed out at him.

Harry stood there in shock, "What?"

"You heard me! Everyone has been ignoring you for the past time and everyone knows that your best friends ditched you. Thought you would make a new friend by making me go through the same thing?" she started yelling.

"No...," whispered Harry, "No... I swear on my life Hannah, I didn't tell anyone about your mother."

Harry only swore that because he was afraid to lose the one possible friend he might have left. Even though he had only spoken to her once, she at least understood what was going on.

Hannah's eyes widened in shock when she saw the magical oath taking place. Since Harry was still standing, he was telling the truth.

She lowered her wand and collapsed against Harry. "I'm so sorry Harry," while she grabbed him in an awkward hug, "I never told anyone except you and now everyone suddenly knows."

"Why do you suddenly believe me Hannah?" whispered Harry.

"In Hufflepuff we're made aware of all kinds of oaths and vows Harry. The most dedicated oath's are those that are vowed on a life. Normally they don't bind because it is meant as a joke, but if the person that makes the vow means it then it will ... execute the vow," she ended in a whisper.

Harry's eyes widened when he realized that he could have died if he had lied.

"But who told then?" mused Hannah while still being held by Harry.

Harry finally replied, "Nobody was nearby, I didn't see or hear a single person. I've got an invisibility cloak but I doubt anyone took it for that night."

Hannah's eyes widened after a while, "Not a single person Harry."

"Huh?" replied Harry eloquently.

"Harry, Dumbledore isn't doing anything to stop these rumors from spreading even though he should be able to do that easily. There wasn't anything in those corridors except portraits. If they told someone..."

"But why Hannah? It doesn't make any sense at all. This entire situation is just weird."

"I know Harry," she whispered, "We'll see how things go I guess."

When they released each other, Hannah blushed and said, "Err... I'm sorry for accusing you Harry, I didn't -

"Don't Hannah, you only told me. I would have probably reacted the same way."

They parted ways a little while later to avoid being seen together. If they were seen as friends, things would most likely only get worse.

--

A month later both Harry and Hannah were lying in the hospital wing... again.

Harry had visited the wing for six times in that while. He was always cursed from behind. Nobody ever confronted him again after Ron had, most seemed to even fear him.

Hannah was in the same situation. She had her second visit now. The first one was due to a fight with Susan about the entire Parselmouth secret. The second one she was also cursed from behind.

Madam Pomfrey had left the wing for the evening, both Harry and Hannah needed to stay for monitoring reasons. Their broken bones were already mended, but Pomfrey didn't want to take any chances so they both got stuck in the wing. The wing was surprisingly clean. The walls were completely bare, since everything needed to be kept sterile.

Harry had gotten a blast on his leg, which broke it. Hannah had the same thing happen, but with one of her arms.

"I can't do this anymore Hannah," whispered Harry.

Hannah turned to face Harry who had his eyes closed, "Can't do what anymore Harry?"

Harry kept his eyes closed and said, "I can't stay here anymore."

Hannah's mouth twitched a bit. Trust a boy to want to get out of the hospital wing. "You heard Madam Pomfrey, Harry. We have to stay in because she wants to check on us again tomorrow morning."

Harry opened his eyes and turned to face her. Looking into her eyes he replied, "I didn't mean the hospital wing Hannah. I meant Hogwarts."

Hannah's eyes widened in shock at that declaration, "But, you can't just leave here Harry!"

"Why not?" Harry whispered harshly. "I get placed at the Dursleys for whatever reason, I get pointed and gawked at even without all of this idiocy, and now I get glared at while people want to kill me as well? The teachers simply let it all happen and don't even bother looking into the attackers! What's there to stay here for Hannah?"

Hannah's eyes watered a bit while her lips trembled a bit and she mumbled, "Me?"

Harry shot up out of shock. He carefully got out of his bed while trying to put as little weight as possible on the bone that just got mended. He got to Hannah's bed and hugged her as tightly as possible.

"Come with me," Harry stated.

"But what about schooling? Our wands are monitored Harry, we wouldn't be able to do anything."

"Can you honestly say that you want to stay in this Wizarding World? One side looks down on muggle-borns while the other accepts them. What both sides don't understand is that they are all a bunch of bigoted stupid arrogant moronic -

Hannah giggled at all of his insults, the sound was muffled because she was still leaning into the hug. She realized that Harry was actually right. They were all the same, no matter which side they said they belonged too.

"We'll need to take a stop at Gringotts first to make a withdrawal from our trust vaults though. We can't close them because of our age, but we can remove up to a certain limit from those vaults," she stated.

Harry moved a bit away from her and his eyes lit up, "Really? You would come with me? That's great, I didn't want to leave without you and -

Hannah saw that he was rambling again so she gave him a kiss on the cheek, "If you stop rambling we can get our things and get out of here _before_ we are caught."

"I've got my invisibility cloak with me to cover us up, I've kept it with me to avoid getting hit," said Harry. "Fat load of good it did me though," he mumbled after that.

Harry and Hannah vanished under an ancient invisibility cloak and made quick stops at both of their dorms.

They were almost caught in the Hufflepuff dorm, since Harry couldn't get up the female dormitory and he almost set a foot on the stairs when Hannah suddenly remembered about the alarms.

Ten minutes later Hannah came back downstairs in casual clothing. She also had a small bag over her shoulders which contained some of her more personal belongings.

They had already discussed that they couldn't take their entire trunks with them, it would cause too much suspicion. And every minute they got would most likely count.

After stopping by the Gryffindor dormitory, they started on their way to leave the castle. When they finally got outside, Hannah stopped abruptly.

"I can't believe I forgot," she said.

"What do you mean?"

"A wand contains tracking charms Harry. It's to avoid witches or wizards below age to accidentally apparate away and never be found again. If we keep our wands, they'll find us for sure."

Harry searched in his clothes for his wand, but couldn't find it. After searching through his stuff for a moment he finally let out a small laugh.

"What are you laughing at?"

"Hannah, Pomfrey impounded our wands. Probably to keep us from leaving too soon... It would be so nice to see the look on her face when she finds out...," Harry stated with a dreamy smile on his face.

Hannah got a grin on her face as well, "That's one problem taken care of!" she stated happily. "We can always get new wands in another country if we want to, or bribe someone like most pureblood families tend to do."

And after that they both left the school by using an underground tunnel that Hannah knew about from her mother's diary. It was protected by that tree that everyone always called aggressive, but it didn't react to them when they were under the invisibility cloak.

They kept the cloak on while moving through the passage because they weren't sure if there were portraits in this corridor. When they were halfway, the cloak suddenly glowed in a bright light. They both shivered and were scared of what was going on.

A moment later the invisibility cloak lost it's properties and they had to take the cloak off to be able to see.

"What just happened?" whispered Hannah.

"I don't know, this never happened before," whispered Harry back.

They would likely never really know what happened. One of their theories would be that the wards around Hogwarts had almost detected them, which went in against the purpose of the invisibility cloak. Since the cloak needed to keep those within hidden, its ancient magic did whatever it required to keep them hidden.

They would never realize it themselves, but every magical way to find them would fail spectacularly. In doing so, the cloak lost its future purpose and became nothing more than a normal cloak.

It was both an advantage and a disadvantage. While they would never be found again by the usual magical ways, there was a beautiful white owl sitting in the owlery that felt a bond disappear. She bobbed her head sadly and finally flew out of the owlery. Hedwig was never seen again by the magical world.

Harry and Hannah continued down the path and ended up in a scary looking shack. When they finally arrived there, the sun was already on the horizon. They didn't manage to move very fast because Harry tried to keep the weight off of his newly mended leg.

"Harry, we really need to change your look. With all those newspaper cuttings everyone is bound to recognize you," Hannah said.

"Well sorry if everyone keeps shoving my picture on that stupid paper. Not like I ever wanted it anyway," huffed Harry.

Hannah mock gasped, "You're not an attention seeking prat? Drat, I thought that you were. Ah well, I'll just go back to Hogwarts then," she finished in mock disappointment.

Harry only glared at her in reply, which elicited a grin out of Hannah. Harry eventually decided on solving this maturely, and proceeded with rolling his eyes. Hannah smiled widely in reply to that.

"Why do girls always succeed in getting the upper hand, no matter what situation?" asked Harry seriously.

"That's a very good question Harry! Let me know when you get an answer for that, will you?" she asked and then proceeded with getting something out of her eyes.

Harry settled on a pout and asked, "What are you doing Hannah?"

She finally finished and looked him straight in the eyes. Her eyes were a strong brown color. "But... I thought your eyes were a dull blue?" spluttered Harry.

"Not everything is done by magic Harry, two blue colored contact lenses for you," she said, "That should make sure that nobody recognized those green light bulbs of yours."

"Hey, I happen to like those light bulbs," he mumbled.

"So do I," she sighed.

Harry looked up at her and frowned, while she blushed in reply. "Oh just put them in already Harry, we're losing time!"

Harry finally managed to get those pesky contacts in, which changed his eye color considerably. Hannah then took some muggle make up and put a bit of it over his scar.

"There, that is covered up as well. Now this should be enough, if it isn't then we're both so busted."

They finally got out of the shack and wandered into Hogsmeade.

A rather old looking man stepped outside of his shop and looked at the two youngsters. Harry got a bit nervous under his gaze, but Hannah ran straight to the man.

"Oh sir, could you please help us?" she rambled out while her lip was trembling.

"If you want free candy, then I'm afraid I can't really help you," the man said sternly.

"It's not that sir!" Hannah rushed out, "Our mom took the floo to Gringotts a little while ago and told us to follow her afterwards. But when I took the bowl of powder, it slipped out of my hands and the bowl shattered and now the powder is ruined and we can't get to our mother and she'll be worried and she'll be so mad at me and -

"Ok ok, hold on and stop rambling. Come into the story honey. You too fellow," they both followed the man inside of his story, which was filled with candy. Hannah continued with the trembling lip while looking very anxious. Harry just had his eyes open as wide as he could, both scared of being caught on by the man and for Hannah's spontaneous performance.

The man led them straight to his floo place and he asked, "You know how to use this then?"

"Yes sir, take a bit of powder, put it into the fire and shout Gringotts!" Hannah replied.

Harry added with a small grin on his face, "And without dropping the bowl this time."

Hannah glared straight at Harry.

The man chuckled, "Ok you kids, here is some floo powder so you can get on your way."

They both took some floo powder, Hannah immediately said "Thank you so much sir! I'll send my mother by later to thank you and repay you for the powder and -

The man chuckled again, "Isn't necessary dear, but you really should be going before your mother gets even more worried..."

Hannah's eyes grew even more wide and she threw the floo powder into the fire while shouting "Gringotts!". Harry followed a few seconds later.

When they finally arrived in the entrance of Gringotts, Harry amusedly asked "What was with all the rambling? Nice improvisation though."

Hannah blushed, "Well I had to ramble didn't I? If he had thought even twice about the entire situation, he would have merely told us to wait for our mother instead of going after her."

Harry blinked at that reply. "_Damn, she really is good in improvising,_" he thought.

They both filed at a line and finally got at the front.

"Hi, could you please tell me what the maximum amount of pounds is to withdraw from my vault?" asked Hannah.

"Name please," responded the Goblin.

"Hannah Abbott."

"Maximum withdrawal that you can do is 1,000 pounds. Your family was pretty well off so they created a higher limit than normal."

"I'ld like to withdraw the maximum amount possible please."

"Of course, just a moment Miss. Abbott."

A few moments later a small briefcase appeared on the counter. "This contains the withdrawn money Miss. Abbott. Please remember that you can't make any withdrawals again this year."

"I won't forget," replied Hannah.

Harry then wanted to start talking, when he let out a sharp yelp because of the pain in his foot. Hannah had kicked him rather hard.

"Thanks for the assistance!" she said while dragging Harry away from Gringotts.

When they were outside he finally lost his patience, "What did you kick me for? Do you think it's funny? That bloody well hurt!"

Hannah rolled her eyes, "Such a though act and then whining about getting kicked by a girl. I wonder if I could get that story sold to the Daily Prophet...," she mused.

Harry's mouth twitched for a second.

"Harry, you're famous, if you had withdrawn even a single knut out of your vault, how many people would have known?" asked Hannah.

Harry opened his mouth for a second and closed it straight afterwards.

"Exactly," said Hannah.

"Where are we going now Hannah? I don't know anything in Diagon Alley besides the normal stores," Harry asked her.

"How do you think witches and wizards travel to their destinations when they can't apparate or floo there Harry? They go to a travel agency and buy a portkey of course!" Hannah said as if explaining the most obvious thing in the world, "Honestly, didn't you read about anything to do with the magical world besides our school books the last year?"

Harry blushed in reply and looked down while mumbling, "I read Quidditch through the Ages!"

Hannah glanced at Harry and finally mumbled "_Boys... gah!"_

Harry's lip twitched again while he replied "I'll have you know that that reply works perfectly well in the other direction as well! _Girls ... gah!_" he huffed.

Hannah responded by grabbing his arm and dragging him to the travel agency in Diagon Alley. "Hey watch out, would you? I did have a broken leg twelve hours ago!"

They entered the travel agency ten minutes later. When they looked at the clock, they realized that Madam Pomfrey would be looking for them already.

"Hello!" said Hannah happily to the sales clerk.

"Hi, what can I do for you?" asked the clerk.

"Our parents woke up too late today and they had to rush off to work. They forgot to pick up a portkey for us to visit our relatives across the country later. Could we -

"No," the man glared at her, "I don't sell portkeys to children. My license would be revoked faster than you would be able to activate the portkey. If your parents need a portkey, they'll have to get it themselves. Stupid irresponsible ...," he started mumbling.

Harry dragged Hannah out of the story. "That obviously didn't work, long distance traveling seems to be out of the question. We need to get out of the Alley and simply take the first bus we come across."

They left the Alley in a hurry and managed to get onto a bus a few moments later. Since the bus drivers seemed to be suspicious, they always exited after a few stops. The sun began to disappear on the horizon again when they realized that in all the excitement they hadn't even eaten.

They got off at the next stop. It seemed they managed to land themselves in a pretty cozy town. All of the houses looked different from each other, nothing like Privet Drive at all.

They entered a small store and picked out some stuff they could eat directly. What they didn't realize was that they were both being watched like a hawk by an elderly lady.

--

It was a week after the disappearance of both Harry Potter and Hannah Abbott. Albus Dumbledore was sitting in his office while rubbing his forehead. Two students had managed to run away from Hogwarts, something that had never even been thought possible before.

The minister was being a complete buffoon about it, ordering everyone to find them immediately before they started killing people. It seemed that the idiot believed everything the Daily Prophet printed.

After a few moments Dumbledore heard someone clearing her throat. He looked up to see most of the Order whispering to themselves while McGonagall was looking at him in concern.

"I'm fine Minevra," he sighed.

He finally stood up and everyone stopped whispering, "I called you here today to discuss a more serious matter than the disappearance of Harry and Miss. Abbott."

Most of the Order suddenly grew very attentive, what could be more important than finding the only person that could kill You-Know-Who?

"I'll try to keep this as brief as possible, but some history will be needed. A thousand years ago Hogwarts was created -

"Oh please Albus," started someone, "We all know about -

"Yes, I'm sure you do," Dumbledore interrupted, "But as I said, please bear with me for a moment. Hogwarts was created as an institution to teach young witches and wizards. This was not done to teach them everything about magic, but to teach them to control their own magical core."

"The specifics were lost over the years and eventually became the usual lessons that are taught at Hogwarts right now. Even though we don't access our magical core directly any more, we are still using it and our wands allow us to control it."

"Hogwarts was created for that purpose alone. From the old records we managed to find out that if a student goes untrained, he or she might become a danger to everyone around. The magical core would become unstable and the consequences would be very dire."

"While the files are lost a long time ago, the Unspeakables and the Headmasters or Headmistresses around the world are still informed about this issue. All students are always attending a school to avoid any disruptions. Even if a student can't pay his or her way through the school, the schools have funds to pay in their place."

"Which brings up both Harry and Miss. Abbott. Not only does Harry need to be found for his role in the prophecy, but they both need to be found before their magical cores become unstable. This process should take at least several months, otherwise the holidays would cause a rather severe issue."

"It could be that both of them have enough control already. This is not a problem right now, but it could get very dangerous if we do not find them soon. It is imperative that we find both of those students, and as fast as possible! If they get old enough and their magical cores keep growing without any control, the results could be devastating!" thundered Dumbledore.

The information that was just shared left most of the Order in a daze. They never realized just how dangerous having a magical core could be.

And thus they all started searching for the two students in a renewed sense of vigor.

_Little did they know that those students wouldn't be seen for a long time._

--

Harry sighed happily when he woke up next to Hannah. He put an arm around her and pulled her closer. She mumbled cutely in her sleep and crept closer to Harry.

"_Ten years have passed..._" Harry thought.

Hannah's eyes fluttered open and she looked sleepily at Harry, "Morning Harry, what were you thinking about?"

"Ten years Hannah..."

She got a sad smile on her face, "Yes Harry, it's already been ten years. I can't believe we got away with our little rogue adventure," she giggled.

Harry rolled his eyes in reply, "We were just extremely lucky that the old lady that was watching us took us in instead of calling the police."

Both Harry and Hannah were taken in by an elderly couple. They never had any children. Harry and Hannah never asked why because it was obviously a sore issue.

The elderly couple, Violet and John, ran a small toy store in the village. While Violet educated them both at a young age, they also helped out in the store.

They both passed on eventually, and left everything to Harry and Hannah. They were running a small toy store. The funny part was that they were both happy about their lives and didn't wish for anything different.

Harry got pulled out of his thoughts by a kiss from Hannah, "Hmmm..."

"You know, you still owe me a honeymoon!" smirked Hannah.

Harry responded by getting a glassy look in his eyes. Hannah just smiled while thinking, "_It took him long enough... The Dursleys and the Wizarding World had managed to do a good number on him. And now we're finally married,_" she sighed happily.

"After the summer honey, you know that we're getting a good profit right now. In september there will be less customers and we can close the shop for a month then," replied Harry.

"And where are we going Mr. Potter?"

"I'm not telling you, Mrs. Potter!" Harry smirked in reply.

"And when are we going to start working on little Harry's and Hannah's?"

Harry sighed in reply, "You know how I feel about that Hannah. We both know Voldemort is probably back. We haven't checked the Wizarding news, but seeing the strange things happening on the news channels is enough confirmation. I don't want to put any kids on this world just to endanger them. Besides, our children might be forced to go to Hogwarts..."

Hannah had a few tears running down her cheeks, "I know Harry, I just want to have kids so badly. I know it can't happen right now. I just wished..."

Harry held Hannah tightly for the rest of the morning. Talking to each other in whispered voices, glad to finally be married officially. Glad to have left an entire world behind while finding each other. Things weren't always good, they had their arguments. But in the end it was always worth it.

The store below rocked dangerously. Harry and Hannah both jumped out of bed and got dressed quickly. Just when they finished dressing, several Death Eaters entered their room. They were both grabbed tightly and whisked away to a destination that was unknown.

--

When Harry finally woke up, he found himself in the middle of Hogsmeade village. He only recognized it by the candy store that he and Hannah had passed ten years earlier.

Looking around he found Hannah by his side and he immediately proceeded to wake her up. A few moments later a low moan could be heard, Hannah woke up and hugged Harry.

"Welcome, welcome Mr. and Mrs. Potter," said a voice that they didn't recognize.

"You don't recognize me do you Mr. Potter? Allow me to introduce myself, I'm Lord Voldemort," he stated while taking a short mock bow with a sneer on his face.

"For the past five years I've been looking for you Harry, you don't mind if I call you Harry do you?" without waiting for a response, he continued, "Five years Harry. Every single magical means was tried and none of them worked."

"And this morning we finally found you. One of my best spies was reading the minds of the first year students in Hogwarts. He always does that to see if they know anything interesting. He had quite a shock to see an older Harry Potter receiving money from a child in a toy store."

"It only took a few moments after that to figure out your location. I directly sent my best Death Eaters after you of course. They were even so kind to bring your wife with you. Normally they would have killed her instantly, but they saw the nice wedding ring and thought it would be more interesting to take her as well. Now here you are, in the middle of Hogsmeade, to bear witness while I claim this entire country."

"Entire country?" mumbled Harry, "What the hell is he talking about."

"Ah yes of course, you wouldn't know, would you Harry?" answered Voldemort who had heard him. "There is a prophecy about the two of us Harry, only you can defeat me," stated Voldemort while laughing, "Only you, a runaway student that isn't educated in any decent magic at all!"

"Look around you Harry, I even invited everyone to bear witness to this event, including a couple of reporters to watch your destruction. Your old school friends are also present, but they all insulted you, didn't they? Don't worry about Dumbledore, I already executed him this morning. After his and your death, nothing will stop me from claiming this world!"

Hannah started hugging Harry closer while tears ran down her face. "No, not now. Not when we're finally completely together," she started sobbing in his robes.

"ENOUGH," Voldemort shouted, "Enough of the dramatics, I've waited five years for this and I will wait not a second longer! Don't think I will make the same mistake Harry!" Voldemort used his wand to separate Harry and Hannah. "You will die first this time Harry Potter. Your parents defied me three times, you will die this third time!"

"Avada Kedavra!" Voldemort said and watched in pure glee while the spell impacted on Harry's body. Harry fell to the ground with lifeless eyes.

"NOOOOOO...," screamed Hannah, only to be hit by another killing curse from Voldemort.

"As you can see," Voldemort sneered, "Nobody will be able to oppose me no..."

Voldemort never managed to finish that sentence.

Hogwarts was indeed created to teach control of magical cores, because when they were uncontrolled the cores would keep charging up. When death would finally claim those people, it would cause the destruction of everything nearby.

While Dumbledore thought that no evidence remained on the world, he was sadly mistaken. The meteor craters around the world were in effect deaths of witches or wizards that had gone untrained. The epi-center would become supercharged leaving a strange rock behind while everything around would be instantly incinerated.

Harry was not a normal wizard however. His core was damaged before by the killing curse, and now it came back with a vengeance. The explosion caused by his core got even bigger in combination with Hannah's. Both cores manages to combine and caused an explosion that had never been seen before.

In the end, there were two versions known to the world.

The muggles would remember it as the day a meteor crashed down on Britain and wiped it off the face of the earth. Only blackened earth remained behind on which nothing could grow. They vowed to never let such a thing take them by surprise. Instead of focusing on weapons to attack countries, they all started on weapons against meteors to avoid the destruction of an entire nation.

Harry Potter would find it hilarious, but a hundred years later this payed off when a meteor was destroyed which would have wiped out everything on Earth.

The witches and wizards would remember it as the day their bigotry and prejudice was forced to end. The Unspeakables and Heads of Wizarding schools released the information they had and informed them off the complete annihilation of Britain.

Everyone was horrified and they vowed to never again treat children like that again. Each time a small prejudice came forward, it was squashed instantly by the mere reminder of Britain.

--

"You know, they look pretty cute like that," heard Harry while he was opening his eyes.

When he remembered everything that happened, he sat up in shock.

"Argh, don't do that Harry, I was still sleeping," mumbled Hannah.

Harry looked at Hannah and hugged her tightly. Hannah suddenly remembered everything that happened and hugged him as well.

"What happened Harry?" asked Hannah.

"No clue Hannah," replied Harry.

"We might be able to answer that question," replied the same voice as before again.

Harry and Hannah both looked around at their surroundings and the people talking to them.

Everything looked like a fairy tale. Even though the houses looked familiar, everything had an aery glow to it.

The first two people they saw looked like a younger Violet and John. Both of them jumped up and hugged them.

After that Hannah saw two people that she remembered from pictures alone. She ran straight into them while crying, "Mum... Dad.."

Harry looked at her with a smile on his face until he saw three people standing besides the hugging group. James and Lily Potter were standing there with a smile on their faces. A sixteen your old girl was standing nervously besides Lily.

Repeating what Hannah had done, Harry ran straight into them and hugged them as close as he could.

"Are we dead?" whispered Harry.

They broke the hug and Lily responded, "Yes Harry, Voldemort managed to kill both Hannah and you. By killing the both of you, he died as well. Now you get to live here. Looks pretty nice, don't you think?"

Everyone besides Hannah, Harry and the sixteen your old girl knew of what happened to Britain, but they didn't see any reason to disturb them with that knowledge. It wasn't their fault anyway.

"Yes, it does. Now can you tell me why there is a sixteen year old girl standing next to you which looks like you but with black hair instead of red?" asked Harry.

The girl in question blushed in reply. James decided to respond, "Well Harry, you didn't think the afterlife would be _that_ boring now did you? We're still conscious, thinking, breathing,... I like to think of this entire thing as a... a vacation! One very long, never ending, vacation!"

"This is Rose, Harry. Your sister," continued Lily while glaring at James for avoiding the issue.

Harry hugged Rose for a while, grinning the entire time.

Hannah picked up on that and asked, "So we have a lot of time?"

"Yes," replied James.

"And, it's possible to have children here?" Hannah continued.

"Yes," replied Lily.

"Are any of these houses for Harry and me?" Hannah continued questioning nonchalantly.

"That one," pointed Violet who already started smiling.

Hannah glared straight at Harry, went up to him, grabbed him by the arm and dragged him straight over to the house that was pointed out.

While Harry was trying to get out of her grip, mumbling things like "getting to know his parents, her parents, his sister and Violet and John", Hannah however was saying something entirely different.

"You've been talking me out of this for a long time Harry. Well guess what?" she asked sweetly. Too sweet if you asked Harry. "There is no Hogwarts here, no Voldemort, no threats, nothing even remotely dangerous!"

"And?" swallowed Harry, still not getting the point.

Hannah dragged him through the front door, "AND?" she shouted, "You have eternity to get to know everyone here, if I'm not pregnant in the next month, you'll find out just how angry I can get! And don't even dare tell me you didn't get enough _practice_..."

Harry's eyes widened comically and he gave in to his wife a second later, closing the door behind them. In the meanwhile the people left on the street were laughing at their antics.

**THE END**

--

Author's Notes:

I hereby thank the reviews and comments I received on fanficauthors before posting here. Several adjustments were made on their advice.

Thank you for the input Jimxinu, malko050987, Iunee, Ishtar, JoeFenton, Philipe and Darth Cious.


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